The Seeker
by skipple
Summary: Twenty years after the Zero Requiem, C.C. is still searching for her lost partner in crime. Is he even alive? Does he still love to gamble? Will pizza ever get any less delicious? SPOLERS: Yes, yes, and of course not.
1. They Call Me the Seeker

[I dont own code geass]

I've been meaning to write this idea for a while now, and tonight I finally got around to doing the first chapter. I kind of threw all this together at one time really late at night, which usually results in a bit of a mess, but I'm gonna publish it anyway because I've been wanting to for so long. I suppose I could wait 'till morning to reread it, but.... f*ck it.

Hope you enjoy! Also please review!

* * *

She stared at the picture that was placed in her hands with a mixture of shock and sadness. It was a picture of Lelouch, clothed in the Emperor's robes, one of his arms stretched out toward the vast audience below him. She was not looking at him, however. She was staring at the girl sitting near him on the stage, the one with the green hair and the stoic expression on her face. She was staring at herself.

She suddenly remembered where she was and wiped the surprise off her face. She looked back up at the man standing in the doorway. "I can't deny, it's a striking resemblance."

The man smirked. "Striking indeed."

She studied him for several seconds before replying, "and you think it's me, do you?"

The man's smirk widened, his crooked teeth peeking through slightly parted lips. "I _know_ it's you, C.C. The infamous Black Queen, the Emperor's Witch. My accomplices and I have the evidence to reveal your identity to the press, but we're willing to make a deal-"

"Tell me, please, when was this photo taken?" She suddenly interrupted, her eyebrows furrowed in mock contemplation.

"During Lelouch's reign, of course."

She nodded her head thoughtfully. "And... I'm sorry, my memory is so bad these days... About how long ago was that?"

The man's smirk faded. "A-about twenty years, I believe..."

She let out an exaggerated gasp and theatrically threw her hand to her forehead. "Twenty years! Really, has it been that long? Seems like it was just yesterday!"

The man was now thoroughly confused. "Um, y-yes... Listen, if you're willing to pay us-"

She abruptly held her hand up to his face like a traffic officer, her dramatic facade gone. "Stop. Please." She shoved the photo back into his hands. "It's been twenty years. The girl in that picture would probably be around forty by now. Do you _honestly_ think I'm forty years old? Please tell me, because if I really do look that old, I need to seriously consider hiring a new cosmotologist."

She watched as the man took a few seconds to carefully put together the words in his head before speaking, "Well, no, you don't exactly _look_ forty, but recent advances in plastic surgery..."

"If I _was_ C.C., and I _did_ get plastic surgery, do you _really_ think I wouldn't change my face to avoid people like you?" She raised her eyebrows at him questioningly.

The man was now reduced to a sputtering mess of confusion. "W-well, it's still possible-"

"What's still possible? That the 'so-called 'Black Queen' is currently living alone in a modest apartment, working 72 hours a week as a blackjack dealer in some random casino twenty minutes east of Las Vegas? What the hell kind of conspiracy theory is that?"

"But... my accomplices and I, we've done the research-"

She shushed him again with her hand. "You know what? Just go ahead and sell the photo to the media. Tell them your story. See if _they_ believe it, because I sure as hell don't. Goodbye."

_SLAM!_

She stood still for a moment, then slowly leaned forward and, with a quiet _thump_, rested her head against the door in front of her.

It was true, she was the woman in the picture. For once, the conspiracy theorists were right. They had been following her movements, surprisingly successfully, for quite a while now. It began only a few years after the Zero Requiem. Her hair was still dyed black at that point, which she foolishly thought would be enough of a disguise to ward off very much suspicion. She wasn't exactly famous to begin with, few people knew of her existence, and far fewer gave two shits about it. But still, they managed to find her.

She found out about it while was searching the internet for information concerning the Zero Requiem. She was reading the biographies of the people involved, what they had been doing since that fateful day. And it was there that she saw herself. It was a picture of her as she walked behind Lelouch, likely on the way to one of his many council meetings. There was no name under her picture, instead only a link was provided in the form of a large question mark.

The link brought her to another site, headed with another picture of her, only this one more recent. It showed her, with black hair, working at a dog racing track in Tokyo. It was taken _after_ the Zero Requiem.

But, honestly, she really didn't have much to be worried about. After all, hardly anyone knew or cared who she was. There was only a small group of people who wanted to solve the mystery of the Black Queen, but she had to admit they were quite persistent in their goal.

For years they followed her movements. Pictures showed her working at casinos and race tracks around the world. Poker tables, roulette, craps, blackjack; she had done them all. The website had a massive list of locations that she had been spotted at, and almost all of them had something to do with gambling. There were also several sightings at various Pizza Hut restaurants, a phenomenon that the website only described as "yet another obsession."

The website had a forum which she found especially amusing. There were countless theories on why she seemed so attached to jobs related to gambling, few of them very substantial, and none of them anywhere close to the truth.

It was ironic, she thought. A website dedicated to "the Truth" was nowhere close to finding it. Because they couldn't even imagine the real truth. None of them even considered that he might still be alive. They didn't realize the possibility. It was simple: she was searching.

Searching for him.

Searching for the Demon King.

* * *

Review! Tell me if I should keep this going, tell me what I'm doing wrong, tell me what I'm doing right! Tell me about the weather! Tell me anything! Just please review!!!

Oh also I have a question. I'm thinking of going one of two ways with this fic: either I'll write the entire thing from C.C.'s perspective, or I'll switch between her and Lelouch. What sounds better?


	2. I've Been Searching Low and High

Okie dokie, here's the second chapter. It's a short one, but necessary. I'm liking where this story is going, I'm getting tons of ideas flooding my mind right now, and I can't wait to put them into action. Shit's gonna go down, people!

Now, please enjoy this chap!

* * *

She dealt the cards effortlessly, letting them slide out of her hand with simple flicks of her wrists so that they landed perfectly in front of the players' waiting hands. After almost twenty straight years of dealing cards, she didn't even need to look at what she was doing, it just came naturally. Instead, she scanned the crowd, her eyes darting between the hundreds of faces, searching. She had unintentionally trained herself to run through a constant cycle of scanning the crowd and working the table at the same time, a feat which she usually performed quite well.

But today she was distracted. Or preoccupied. Worried.

Damn it, she hated to admit that. She was worried. Those damned conspiracy theorists! She thought that, after twenty years of persistence, they would finally just pack their things and give up. But no. Of course not. Nothing could work out that easily for her in this world.

The encounter yesterday had been the first time they actually contacted her. Previously, they had followed her, more or less known where she was and what she was doing. She let them do it. Sure, it was creepy, but they weren't posing any threat. She had visited their website, discovered that there were only four of them, determined they were all simple low-lives in need of hobbies, and decided there was nothing to worry about. They had no malicious intent, their only goal was to "find the Black Queen." More importantly, they had no support. Quite frankly, nobody else cared who the hell she was. They had a public forum with five registered members (the four of them, plus a randomly generated spambot). They were harmless.

_Tap tap._

"Hit me."

But that encounter yesterday... It was strange. Unlike them. In fact, she was fairly sure it wasn't them at all. Perhaps a third party, someone who wanted to make some quick cash.

_Tap tap tap._

"Hit me!"

Whatever the case, it was unnerving. She might be immortal, but she would still rather not be put under the public spotlight. Or be kidnapped. Or whatever else someone might have planned for her.

_Tap taptaptaptap._

"Earth to dealer! Hit me!"

C.C. suddenly snapped back to reality. The player in front of her glared impatiently and tapped his ring finger on his cards far more loudly than necessary.

"Sorry, sir." She tossed him a card and glanced apologetically at him before going back to scanning the crowd.

She had to find out who the man at the door was, and there was only one place to go to find out.

And she really, _really_ would rather avoid that place in particular.

* * *

"Good evening, Sarah, any lucky players today?" The young girl behind the desk asked as C.C. walked by.

"Not on my watch, Laura, not on my watch," C.C. smiled and winked at her before heading up the stairs to her apartment.

C.C. liked to describe her home with one word: cozy. She would, of course, be the last to admit that "cozy" is just a nice way to say "atrociously small."

And it was most definitely cozy. C.C. was not a believer in decorations, which is lucky because there wasn't a whole lot of room for such accessories. The majority of the apartment was occupied by her personal favorite piece of furniture: a ridiculously comfortable lime green couch, perfect for reclining on to watch some Mythbusters after a long day of demon hunting (she'll tell you she bought it from an antiques auction, but the truth is she stole it from the bar across the street [how she pulled off such a feat remains a closely guarded secret]). Nearby, occupying one corner of the room, lay her kitchen. Or, to be more accurate, her "kitchen area." It was currently littered with pizza boxes, and in fact it was so messy that even C.C. would very much prefer not to go into detail about that particular part of her home at the moment. Two doorways in the side of the room led to the (extremely cozy) bathroom and her bedroom, which she somehow managed to fit a queen sized bed into (another closely guarded secret).

It was cozy.

It was home.

She snatched a slice of pizza out of the fridge with one hand and grabbed the laptop off the countertop with the other before flopping down onto her favorite couch with a sigh, opening the computer in her lap and pulling up the web browser. She reluctantly forced her fingers to type out the dreaded web address.

She hit 'Enter' and cringed at the home page of the amateur website, "The Grey Witch Hunters," consisting solely of an outdated (not that it mattered) photo of herself and a few links along the top. "About Us - About Her - Join Us - Forums." She could almost see cobwebs resting upon the "Join Us" link. She clicked on "Forums," which popped up a window prompting her to register before entering.

She hovered the little white pointer over the "register" button.

This was it. Now or never.

She had questions and they (hopefully) had answers.

She had never even considered the possibility of having to do this. She briefly contemplated the irony of the situation before bringing her finger firmly down upon the mouse clicker.

* * *

You might have noticed I changed the genre. That is because I really have no idea what to put this under other than general, but I hate to leave it as just "General." So I chose suspense. I guess it's suspenseful. Whatevz.

Sorry for the horrible shortness, but please review!


	3. I Won't Get to Get What I'm After

Here it is, the third chapter! I made this one significantly longer than the others to make up not only for their relative shortness, but also for the ridiculously long delay between this update and the last. Sorry, but fanfiction is pretty far down my priorities list. :P

Anyway, again, sorry for the wait. Hope you enjoy this one!

* * *

Name: Captain Cheesy

**Password:** codebreaker

**Birthdate:** January 1, 1900 _("This thing doesn't go below the twentieth century!?")_

**Motto:** Yeah, it's really me.

* * *

She filled in the rest of the information and clicked "submit." A few seconds later she was ironically confirmed as the sixth official member of the Grey Witch Hunters Forum. Her eyes were suddenly attacked by an atrocious combination of lime green, gold, and black colors that made up the decorations of the website. She squinted at the screen in order to find the button to turn the brightness down until she could finally read the front page without putting on sunglasses. The page was organized in an odd way, with the classic "WWWWH" questions listed as individual forum topics.

**

* * *

Who:** _Who is C.C? Who was she? Discuss her identity here._

**How:** _Discuss our mission and how we conduct our research here._

**What:** _Post all known facts about C.C. here._

**When:** _The biggest mystery about the Grey Witch. Discuss C.C.'s age here._

**Where: **_This section is dedicated to the search for the current location of C.C. Last seen at: "Stardust Casino," Area 9, Japan.

* * *

_

Stardust Casino? She used to work there, but the last time she had even been in Japan was at least five years ago. Apparently, these guys gave up on their mission a while back. A claustrophobic sense of loneliness suddenly overcame C.C. as she absorbed this fact. She didn't realize it, but it was a little comforting knowing that at least someone, somewhere, actually cared about her. Sure, it was creepy as hell, but now she felt like she didn't even matter anymore. Her old self was dead, replaced by the fake identity known as Sarah Collins. It was depressing.

But then she remembered why she came to this website in the first place.

If the witch hunters gave up five years ago, the man at the door yesterday must not be one of them at all. If not, then who is he? How did he find her? He wasn't very smart, or he would have known his quick money-making scheme was bound to fail. Did he have ulterior motives in mind? But what did the man gain from trying to blackmail her?

C.C. groaned and massaged her temples with one hand. She hadn't thought things through like this since...

Well, since Lelouch. She would always be analyzing the situation in Lelouch's schemes and battles. Sometimes she would help him, think alongside him and provide input, but other times she would simply watch him think.

She would sit on his bed munching on pizza while he sat at his desk with a laptop, periodically scribbling notes on a sheet of paper or typing tidbits on the computer. She would watch as his typing became stressed, each key being pounded on excessively hard as he consistently ran his fingers through his raven hair. This would only last a few minutes, though. Eventually he would get into the swing of things as his genius mind kept producing more and more ideas. Then the typing would descend into a softer pattern, his fingers running across the keyboard as if they were playing a piano. At this point she would close her eyes and let her mind wander, as Lelouch's typing started to sound more like a light drizzle of rain on wet leaves rather than tight fingers plotting plans of destruction.

She would usually fall asleep before he finished. But sometimes she would only act like she was sleeping. She would lie down on the carefully made-up bed and continue watching the boy working through half-closed eyelids. He would always stop soon after he saw her lie down, as if he was staying up only to entertain her. She would close her eyes when he stood up from his desk, and _usually_ she would keep them closed as he changed into his pajamas. After changing, he would grab the futon (that he bought specifically for _her_ to sleep on) and several blankets out of the closet to arrange them on the floor by the bed. Just before turning out the light, he would drape a blanket or two over her and rearrange the pillows under her head to a more comfortable-looking position. It was hard to stop herself from smirking at these cheesy romantic displays of chivalry.

But it was even harder to hide the blush rising into her cheeks.

C.C. shook her head clear of those thoughts, her green hair twirling out around her in an umbrella of green. As it settled over her shoulders, she clicked the last link on the page. "**New Members:**_ Welcome, introduce yourself here."_

There was, unsurprisingly, only one thread in this section, which introduced the original four members of GWH. C.C. decided there wasn't much to know about a bunch of obsessed stalkers, and instantly scrolled over to the "New Thread" link.

**

* * *

Subject: **Heya folks!

**Content:** I'm C.C. Yes, THE C.C. I'm disappointed to see that you guys have already given up on your quest. Anyway, I'm just popping my head in here because I need to ask a quick question. Which one of you bastards showed up at my door yesterday trying to blackmail me? I can handle the stalking and all that (though it IS really creepy, guys), but actually knocking on my door and threatening me? Come on. Have a little respect.

-C.C.

* * *

She triumphantly smiled at her brief message and clicked the "Submit Thread" button. It's going to be interesting to see their reactions to this, if they even respond at all.

She put the laptop down on the table in front of her, searched for the remote within the seat cushions, and turned the T.V. on as after she found it. It was tuned to a news channel, apparently reporting about Empress Nunnally doing something respectable, as usual. She smiled sadly at the image of Nunnally giving a speech with Zero standing behind her, his hands behind his back. Nunnally was the only friend that C.C. had before the Zero Requiem who was still alive. Besides Lelouch, of course. But at least Nunnally and her had kept in touch.

She laughed at herself. "Kept in touch." The only contact she has had with the Empress is a brief phone call during lunch one day. Calling her a friend was quite a stretch, really. The only conversations they ever had were full of C.C. lying about how she was a friend of Lelouch's at Ashford. Nunnally knew nothing about who she really was, so was she really a friend?

C.C. sighed and picked the laptop back up, trying to distract herself to less depressing matters. Blackmail and stalkers, to be specific.

She refreshed the front page and was surprised to find that "New Members" already had one person viewing it. After five years, someone still checks the site? Or they just have email reminders. They hadn't replied yet, of course. She suspected they were still trying to figure out what to say to someone claiming to be C.C. on a forum dedicated to the pursuit of the person in question. She clicked the link to the forum to discover that it now had two people viewing her thread. Out of curiosity she refreshed the page one more time. _"3 viewing."_

Her eyes widened. Damn, these guys are quick.

A minute later, there were three replies to her thread, which she quickly read with curious eyes.

* * *

**Roger:** This place still exists? Hi, C.C. I don't believe you and I have no idea what you're talking about, but hi.

**Keith****: **Roger! whats up man? i cant believe this site is still up either!!!

**Pete: **OP is obvious fake. also hey guys long time no see.

* * *

Okay, so they completely ignored her other than to point out that she is probably a fake. Not surprising. But before she could type up a response, another reply appeared in the thread.

* * *

**Roger:** Listen, Cheeser, could you at least try to provide some sort of proof that you are who you say you are?

* * *

Ah, skeptical acknowledgment. Now we're getting somewhere. C.C. grabbed a sticky note, scribbled "hi Roger" on it with a sharpie, and took a picture of herself holding it up in front of the computer's built-in camera.

* * *

**Captain Cheese:** Will this do?

* * *

She included the picture in her message and hit "Submit Reply." Less than a minute later there were three more replies.

* * *

**Roger: **Sorry but that's no proof, Cap'n, image editing software can do wonders these days.

**Keith: **maybe if you show some skin...

**Pete: **Shut up, Special K. Roger's right. This is most likely someone trying to trick us. But we can at least try to get some proof, it's worth a try. C.C., could you take a picture with one eye closed and maybe salute to the camera or something? That way we know you aren't just sending us edited pictures. Should be enough proof.

* * *

C.C. sighed and did what she was told. It was humiliating, but it made sense. They needed a picture of her doing something that she otherwise wouldn't do, as proof that she wasn't simply using some old picture. And it just wasn't worth arguing at the moment. At least they all weren't trying to make her "show some skin." She posted the picture and waited for a reply. She didn't have to wait for long.

* * *

**Keith:** Holy shit.

**Pete: **I don't believe it.

**Roger: **Wow. Um, hi. I'm Roger, it's nice to finally meet you. Welcome to the Grey Witch Hunters...

I have a feeling things around here are finally going to get interesting again.

* * *

Annnnnd, there's my rather abrupt ending of chapter 3. Come on, I had to end it somewhere, it was getting _really_ long!

Thank you for the kind reviews!!!! And because I'm bored and a little eccentric, I'm going to respond to every single one of them right now.

All 22 of them.

Here we go:

_The Demise of the Fallen Angel: T_hat episode is exactly what I had in mind when I came up with this story, actually._  
_

_DhyetaX1999: _Yeah, I'll probably keep it in C.C.'s perspective at least for the first several chapters, to keep a mysterious theme to the story rather than throwing the whole plot out there at once.

_Vincent-shin: _You kind of like it!? Well that just won't do!!! Just kidding, thanks for the kind review :P

_Mikage24: _I'm glad to hear you like my writing! I'm planning for this story to be solely in C.C.'s perspective for the time being, but later on...we'll see. And I will keep My Fair C.C. going, but I'm on a bit of a roll with this story and I would hate to break it...

_KiKi Hayashi: _Great minds think alike, it seems.

_Digimon Dreamer: _Wow! That's some good thinking, there. However, I already have a little bit of a plan for this story and it completely contradicts with your ideas... have you considered writing your own story based off that? Sounds very interesting. If you don't do it, I might. ;)

_Haavu: _I'm not precisely sure how I'm going to introduce Lelouch, but all those ideas are definitely in the thinking pot. Also, if the fic continues as planned, you're going to see conspiracy theories out the wazoo.

_Angel-wing2: _Thanks!_  
_

_Starlight Luna: _Although I would love to incorporate all those things into the story, I'm afraid it just isn't possible without the whole thing becoming a long, jumbled mess. I have to keep things simple, that's just my style.

_Shaitan Elnefi: _haha, awesome, I'm happy to hear it had that effect!

_Haavu: _ I'm still angry at myself for the length of that chapter... hopefully this makes up for it somewhat.

_Digimon Dreamer: _ I was pretty proud of myself for thinking up that little pun :P

_Revior: _ I hate having to choose to use his perspective or not, because I know both styles would have so many advantages that the other doesn't have. But I think I'm sticking with C.C., for now.

_KiKi Hayashi: _ Yes, I definitely see some unfortunate parallels between the GWH forum and our own little slightly neglected forum...

_sissy fan and yumi fan: _That's the plan! Thanks!

_Mr. Nox: _ Yeah I kind of stole the idea of the blackmail scene from The Dark Knight film... but I still loved writing it, and I think I made it original enough to call it my own. I'm still fretting over perspectives, though. I'm just going to have to go with the flow.

_sakurahanaalice: _You have no idea how tempted I was to make C.C. punch the guy in the face after he said "hit me." But I restrained myself.

_Mr. Nox: _I think the stalkers are going to be very important characters for this fic. I have some very interesting, and hopefully surprising, ideas for them.

_INNER-YAMATA-NO-OROCHI: _ Yeah sorry about that :(

_KeizerGodzilla: _ Yeah, me too, which is why I'm having such a hard time writing it XD

_ofdarknesschaos: _Updating soon ain't really my style.

Well that was fun. Review some more, please! I LOVE REVIEWS!


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